A man in Glendale, Calif., submitted his strategy, which involves telling a pitchmen that he needs to get a pen and paper, then disappears for a bit. When he returns, he says he needs to get his wallet from the other room. Gosh, he says when he returns, that darn wallet must be in the car. Can you hold on a minute while I get it? And so on. He says with pride that while he's never gotten to the 30-minute mark with a telemarketer, he's often broken 20.

I'm not a busy person, in fact, last night I re-watched 3 reruns of the Big Bang Theory non-stop because I was too lazy to find a movie to watch. But Christ, Glendale, get a life.

i amuse myself by telling them they have a pretty voice and would make way more money doing phone sex. then i ask what kind of panties they're wearing (they're always guys) and tell them i'm not wearing anything at all. usually by this time they've yelled and hung up, but if not, mmm, let's talk about their hot man rod and, i dunno, something about gaping and gasping for more or something.

Sybarite:In a later column, Lazarus, who calls this strategy a "reverse scam," invited readers to submit more strategies for making the lives of telemarketers a living hell.

I always try to take some time out of my day to worsen the lives of people in shiatty, low-paying jobs.

Sympathy for the devil?

The practice is illegal. And most of them are scams intended to rip people off and/or are staffed by cons. I have no sympathy whatsoever. If someone is trying to mug me, is it impolite to tell them to get bent? Should I be more enlightened and understanding of their predicament and instead open my wallet to them?

Telemarketers, notes Lazarus, are not fools. They don't want to waste their time any more than do consumers. After realizing they've been tricked into sticking with a fruitless call, they don't want to make the same mistake again. So, they stop calling, he said.

Doesn't work for the two biggies: Cardmember Services and GE Home Security.

1. Some stupid Vegas Vacations which is a live person, telling me I've won a vacation to Vegas2. Illegal recorded spam, sometimes in Spanish, sometimes in English, and usually with a spoofed phone number.

It's nice to see that ABC News is writing ad copy for nomorobo.com. Nomorobo.com, your free destination for ending annoying robo calls. Visit nomorobo.com for more information on how you can sign up for this revolutionary service with no more than an email address. Remember: nomorobo.com. Visit today.

Diogenes:Sybarite: In a later column, Lazarus, who calls this strategy a "reverse scam," invited readers to submit more strategies for making the lives of telemarketers a living hell.

I always try to take some time out of my day to worsen the lives of people in shiatty, low-paying jobs.

Sympathy for the devil?

The practice is illegal.

There's nothing illegal about telemarketing. There's a big telemarketing call center about a mile from where I'm sitting right now that's been there for a over a decade. Even if you have your name on the Do Not Call registry, it's perfectly legal for anyone you've done business with to contact you up to 18 months after your last purchase.

If it's a live person I usually just say "not interested" and hang up. Sometimes I say "please take me off your call list and do not call this number again" but I doubt very much that they pay that any mind.

I swear it has to be worse in Canada. The do not call list here is super gutless, and it is very difficult for the CTRC to actually fine anyone unless they get a bunch of complaints within the same period of time.

Plus telemarketers have come up with ways to clone legitimate phone numbers, so that even if the call is coming from Pakistan, it will show up on your call display as a local number.

Usually I just hang up, or if I want to have a little fun I will hand the phone to my 3 year old and let them try to do business with her.I think next time they call I may hand them off to the screaming baby instead.

BunkoSquad:Oh, good, I shall forward that to 2003, which is I think the last time I got a call from a telemarketer

just a few years ago I was being hit hard by extended warranty service for my car - on my cell phone (which is on the do-not-call list). After telling them no thanks and simply hanging up a few times I started messing with them.

I'd say I had a 1977 Mercedes 300 SL (Note: I don't even know if Mercedes made a '77 300SL) and asked them how much it would cost. They could never quote me a price and after much back and forth I'd tell them I was completely wasting their time and to stop calling me.

There are a few conversations in life I'm tired of overhearing. This is one of them. Others include: * "You know what happens when you shoot a [small animal] with a [large caliber rifle]?" * "Man, I was so drunk! I was so drunk that [crazy shiat happened, as far as I know]!"

Sybarite:Diogenes: Sybarite: In a later column, Lazarus, who calls this strategy a "reverse scam," invited readers to submit more strategies for making the lives of telemarketers a living hell.

I always try to take some time out of my day to worsen the lives of people in shiatty, low-paying jobs.

Sympathy for the devil?

The practice is illegal.

There's nothing illegal about telemarketing. There's a big telemarketing call center about a mile from where I'm sitting right now that's been there for a over a decade. Even if you have your name on the Do Not Call registry, it's perfectly legal for anyone you've done business with to contact you up to 18 months after your last purchase.

We're talking past each other.

I have no problem with legal telemarketers or people you've allowed/done business with before.

A lot of people confuse "telemarketing" and collection calls. If you haven't paid your car note in 3 months, don't be surprised that people are calling you. I understand the calls are super annoying, but you're better off communicating with the collections company than waking up upset to not find your car.

I kept one slimy telemarketer on the line for an hour. She was trying to sell a dating service, but never mentioned that service until an hour after I started answering inane questions, at which point I had the satisfaction of hearing her scream her frustration when I calmly refused her service. All in all a good time, as I was able to continue doing the cleaning while talking to her.

cookiefleck:A lot of people confuse "telemarketing" and collection calls. If you haven't paid your car note in 3 months, don't be surprised that people are calling you. I understand the calls are super annoying, but you're better off communicating with the collections company than waking up upset to not find your car.

True, you're better off just talking to debt people. Of course there are consumer protections against harassing calls, as well.

I frequently got calls on my cellphone from random cities across the US, all from the same "Credit Card Services" company. While the caller ID made it easy to tell, it was still annoying to feel my phone vibrating and have to check to see if it was actually a human.

Then I added this to the start of my outgoing message. After a couple of weeks, the robocalls dropped to almost zero.

stevarooni:cookiefleck: A lot of people confuse "telemarketing" and collection calls. If you haven't paid your car note in 3 months, don't be surprised that people are calling you. I understand the calls are super annoying, but you're better off communicating with the collections company than waking up upset to not find your car.

True, you're better off just talking to debt people. Of course there are consumer protections against harassing calls, as well.

Unless you don't actually have a debt with them in the first place and they're just trying to use scare tactics to get you to pay them to go away.

/google Takhar Group and thank the stars you'll probably never have to deal with them

I worked briefly at a collections company doing customer service during college. I got a call transferred to me by a lady super irate that her car was repossessed. She asked why we never contacted her. Luckily, we record every phone call. I played her multiple calls where we tried to inform her the status of her account. We would call and she would immediately answer the phone in a sing songy voice "Not Interested" and would proceed to hang up. She assumed (or so she said) that we were telemarketers.

We just let the phone go to voice. People who we know will announce themselves and we'll pick up. The robocalls disconnect themselves when they sense the machine has picked up. Haven't had to hang up on a telemarketer in ages.

Pocket Ninja:It's nice to see that ABC News is writing ad copy for nomorobo.com. Nomorobo.com, your free destination for ending annoying robo calls. Visit nomorobo.com for more information on how you can sign up for this revolutionary service with no more than an email address. Remember: nomorobo.com. Visit today.

A good portion of the news today is lazy, untrained "reporters" regurgitating some pitch from an ad agency trying to create some buzz. Luckily, we have Fark.com to link every single one of these for us.

No home phone, only cell. Got Google Voice. Any annoying, repeat callers get blocked. Problem solved.For some reason, I get a fax machine trying to call my cell from a "private" number. Had to have Google Voice block all anonymous calls for a bit until their service deleted my number. Some "Private" numbers are legit, so that's my only annoyance.

And as for political, I registered opposite so I can be a poison pill.

Lamberts Ho Man:Does Nomorobo work for political robocalls? If so, I'll be signing up before the 2016 elections.

It should. The way it's described, it asks for input; since most political cold-calls are completely robo, it should serve the same function.

Now, I suppose this will all fail when some robo-call company has their machines listen for and give whatever information is being asked for. I mean, if my CC company can understand when I say "5 3 1 9" then so can a robo-marketer.

Sybarite:Even if you have your name on the Do Not Call registry, it's perfectly legal for anyone you've done business with to contact you up to 18 months after your last purchase.

True, but if you've never done business with them, it's illegal for them to call you.

Yes, Farmer's Insurance, I'm looking at YOU. You farkwit asshats who have your agents calling me all the got-damn time, even after I ask to be removed and state I am on the Do Not Call list and have reported you numerous times.

I don't care how amusing your commercials are. I'll NEVER do business with you. EVER.

If it's a robocall, I try to make it all the way through to the "take me off the list" button. If it doesn't have one, connect to the salesman to tell them not to call anymore. If it's a real person, I may interrupt them at some point to ask if I can ask a question. That being, "if you had a superpower, what would it be?" Or "What is your favorite book ever?" etc. If they do finish and ask to confirm my name and number, I just say that this is a residential line, and I'm not allowed to conduct commerce over it.

I get them at work. Usually robocalls talking about a small business loan or trying to sell leads. But, every once in a while the sun shines through the clouds and I get these guys who call out of Arizona who immediately assume I'm the boss (company name has his name in it) when I say he's not in they ask for his cell number and sometimes get real damn aggressive. Homophobic rants and the like. Last time I called I gave them the rejection hotline number and the guy sounded so thrilled to get the bosses cell. Yeah, two minutes later he calls back screaming about how much cock I suck and how he's going to kick my ass and he asks me "you think that was pretty funny, huh?" Yes. Yes I do.

In Arizona back in the 70s & 80s, solar companies were a real pain with these calls.One time my dad handed the phone to his brother and he promptly hit on her.In the 90s I got a call from a girl at Long Island Blood Services, wound up getting a date.

BunkoSquad:Oh, good, I shall forward that to 2003, which is I think the last time I got a call from a telemarketer

I changed my phone service and number last year, and I haven't had a single telemarketer call me since. Now I'm only paying $20 a month instead of $50 while still keeping Caller ID and unlimited long distance on nights and weekends, which makes switching phone services the best decision I've made in a long time.